When Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham are allowed to snigger triumphantly in the pages of Time about how they are spoiling the Democrats' election, it's time to wrap this thing up:
Meanwhile, Limbaugh opened his program Wednesday with a victory cry: "Operation Chaos is exceeding all objectives...this is just fabulous." Dubbing the Obama-Clinton face-off a "soap opera," Limbaugh says he will carry his campaign through to the final primaries in early June.
"I want our party to win. I want the Democrats to lose," Limbaugh said. "They're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch. And it's all going to stop if Hillary loses."
The way the article is written plays into the whole "hapless Democrats" meme that the GOP loves to deploy:
As if Democrats didn't have enough problems deciding upon their presidential nominee this year, now they must contend with the possibility that Republicans are deliberately crossing party lines to prolong the bitterly contested race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In recent weeks, conservative talk radio stars Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham have urged loyal listeners to vote for the much-despised Clinton in open Democratic primaries so as to prevent Obama from sealing the nomination, and there are some indications that their calls have already been heeded in states like Texas and Mississippi.
Analysts are noting the difference between Republican crossovers before and after the Limbaugh campaign:
In both Ohio and Texas, Republicans and independents were a higher percentage of the votes than in other states. "Based on past results, you would think that favors Obama, who has done well in 'open' Democratic primaries where Republicans can crossover on election day," Mann said. Obama won among California independents 58-32%; Virginia Republicans went for him 72-23; and he won Missouri Republicans 75-21. But in Texas and Ohio the two Democrats split the Republican/independent vote. "The Hillary Republicans cost Obama Texas," Mann said.
Lest I be accused of being an Obama-bot, pinwheel eyes a-whirling like Wile E. Coyote after the Roadrunner inevitably deflects the beam from his Acme Home Hypnosis Kit, I honestly would say the it's time to wrap things up if he was behind now and the Republicans were boosting him for this reason and getting a boost for their nasty scheme from a magazine with national circulation. Time, inadvertently or, more likely, advertently, is giving these yahoos a wider, mainstream, non-talk-radio listening audience, without a single second of questioning about whether this scheme is something that we really ought to be promoting.